Dear readers,
After 4+ years of writing a sequel on and off, in November 2024 I made the decision to cancel the two sequels in the series. Let me explain why.
I had spent 2019 where I wrote the book with every minute of free time I had. I didn't go outside, I saw friends only on occasion and in-between I'd be writing and editing. I had a 600+ page book written and edited within 6 months. That is exhausting to do between a 40 hour work week and I had to take a break from writing. I spent most of 2020 not writing and instead trying to fix my mental that this schedule caused. All during a pandemic where we weren't supposed to be around people.
When I launched the book, it was a soft launch to see how many I could sell with word of mouth. There was no word of mouth. I sold a handful to friends, family and colleagues- but because it was a long book and no one reads much anymore, many never finished it. You can't get word of mouth if people don't finish reading.
I had planned to launch the marketing in February 2020. With the talks of COVID, I delayed it to March and then indefinitely. I even attempted at one point to just get people to read it by offering a free digital version for 24 hours. Again, it didn't work.
I reportedly had a small group of fans who heard of the book through the only word of mouth I learned of. However, they weren't buying copies of the book and instead were sharing one digital copy. I believe someone may have been using Kindle Unlimited to access it. This small group was appreciated but not enough to keep going.
The price was way higher than I ever wanted it to be. Self-publishing on Amazon meant that I had to make it $25 to make $6 on each copy. I matched the digital price at $10 to do the same. I did not break even and have been consistently losing money on the costs.
After contemplating the direction my life was going, I couldn't put anymore time into this series. It was never a side hustle or career change as I had once hoped. It had become a weight that was never going to get done and for no benefit to myself. I was spending money I didn't really have to entertain a few people.
So for now, unless something big changes, Kinrada is dead. I have stopped sales on Amazon for the time being, as Amazon is a big part of the problem in more ways than one. This means that many other retailers have also stopped, because they all just bought their copies from Amazon. Don't @ me on Facebook or Twitter because I don't have those (and if I figure out how to delete the X account it'll be gone like the Facebook pages). The only social media I have up at this time now is LinkedIn.
If I have the time, I will figure out a place to sell it digitally for anyone interested.
For the kingdom-
James O. Gabbard